Authors: Kyra Anderson
She stumbled toward the center of town,
intent on returning to Companion. She could see the building of the company get
larger, but she was unable to get there before her confusion overwhelmed her.
She ducked into the nearest alley and
collapsed.
Leaning against the side of the building,
she let confused tears overtake her.
When Rayal walked into the living room,
he was alarmed at what he saw.
Isa was standing near the bar, her arms
around Tarah as the younger woman cried quietly into the Elite’s chest. He
walked to the both of them, his footsteps drawing Tarah’s attention.
“What happened?”
Tarah hiccupped between her sobs and
turned away from both of them, walking into the kitchen quickly. Isa let out a
defeated sigh.
“What’s going on?” Rayal pressed.
“She’s upset over Kailynn leaving,” Isa
murmured. “I was concerned that having another person here would complicate
things for her.”
Rayal turned to the kitchen,
understanding what Isa meant.
“I’ll talk to her,” the former caretaker
offered.
Isa nodded her thanks as he went into the
kitchen. Tarah was in front of the sink, her hands wrapped around the edge of
the basin as she crouched in front of it, crying.
“Tarah,” he called quietly.
“No, go away,” she snapped, her voice
breaking.
Rayal walked over to her and grabbed her
shoulders, pulling her up and turning her around to hug her. He smoothed over
her hair as her arms went around him, her sobbing wracking her entire body.
Rayal held her tight, letting her break down.
He kicked himself for not realizing how
difficult the situation would become for Tarah. Tarah had thrived with Isa, and
he hardly remembered the starved, bruised, terrified child that Isa had brought
into the capital. But as he held her, he remembered how young Tarah was, and
how much of her past she had been unable to leave behind.
“I’m sorry…” she choked, shaking as her
crying slowly subsided.
“No, I apologize,” Rayal murmured. “I
didn’t realize how difficult this would be for you.”
“It
shouldn’t
be,” Tarah hissed. “She wanted me to go out and see her, but I haven’t left
this tower in years. But she…she…she can do whatever she wants, she can
help
Isa. But…I…”
Tarah was overwhelmed and confused, her
sentences jumbled.
In those few moments that Tarah buried
her face back in Rayal’s chest, the former caretaker started to see how
complicated the situation was for everyone. Tarah had become attached to
Kailynn, who was finally someone that the younger woman could talk to. Tarah
had also been able to see that Kailynn was
good
for Isa. The words hurt Rayal, knowing that he had told Kailynn not to come
back, even knowing that Isa had already become very fond of the Significant.
“Rayal,” Tarah breathed. She glanced up
at him, swallowing hard. “I knew her from before.”
“What?” Rayal breathed. “What do you
mean?”
“I remember her from when I was younger,”
she continued. “She’s a Trid.”
Rayal was sure that his heart stopped
beating for a few seconds as the words processed.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “We had the same
Keeper.”
“But she didn’t recognize you?”
“No.”
Rayal was not sure what to think. The
fact that Kailynn was actually an orphan from Trid who must have faked papers
to get work as a Significant added even more weight to the situation.
“Rayal,” Tarah started, “I’m so
confused.”
“We all are.”
“Will you stay?” Tarah asked. “Not for
me, but for Isa?”
“Yes,” he assured. “I’ll stay for both of
you.”
Kailynn paced anxiously by the abandoned
car garage. She knew that the members of the Heart of Trid gang had likely
already made their escape, but she was still terrified that something would go
wrong. She had quickly taken the money from her job with the Golden Elite and
paid the guards at Uren to turn away when Theo and the others escaped. It had
only been four days since her return to Trid and she had quickly busied herself
with the gang’s escape, trying to keep her mind off of the perfectly clear blue
eyes that haunted her.
“Relax,” Raphael chuckled as she
continued to pace. “The guards don’t give a shit. They’ll get out.”
“You don’t know that.”
Raphael walked over and grabbed Kailynn’s
shoulders, pulling her close and kissing her. She stopped, surprised. When he
pulled away, Raphael kept his arms secure around her, smiling.
“It will be alright,” he assured. “Theo’s
smart. He’ll be fine.”
Kailynn was about to object but Raphael
pinned her against the wall of the car garage, capturing her lips in a
near-bruising kiss. She was, once again, stunned, but when Raphael’s hands went
up the front of her shirt to palm her breast, she broke the kiss and pushed him
away.
“Not now.”
“You have been acting weird since you
came back,” Raphael said, stepping away. “Are you alright?”
“I’m worried about Theo, alright?”
Kailynn groaned. “I risked my fucking life to get this much money, and I want
to make sure that this works.”
For another two hours they waited, joined
by a few other members of their gang. Kailynn was trying not to let herself get
too worked up, but her heart was practically in her throat, choking her. She
continued to look around for signs of movement, knowing that Theo and the other
gang members could come from any direction, depending on how they managed to
escape.
“Alright, spill it,” Alyssa finally said
as she sat in the shade of the car garage, throwing pebbles and cracked pieces
of concrete at one another in boredom. Kailynn turned when she did not continued,
surprised to find that Alyssa was speaking to
her
.
“What?”
“Spill,” Alyssa repeated. “How d’ya get
the money to bust ‘em out?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“Because you don’t get that kinda money
whoring,” Alyssa said simply. “How d’ya get it? Stealin’ from people in the
capital?”
Kailynn was about to deny the accusation,
but hesitated. There were only two people in the gang who knew she was working
as a Significant. Kailynn did not want anyone else to know. In Trid, pride was
everything and rumors could be a death sentence. That was the reason Theo could
not be broken out of Uren without others of his gang. The gossip of his failure
and the possibility of bringing the Officials into Trid put a target on Theo’s
head. Kailynn’s situation was different, but not drastically so. Faking papers
to find work in the capital was not brave or admirable, but cowardly and
selfish. If you were born a Trid, you died a Trid. A Trid was never supposed to
want to become a citizen of Anon. Trids were proud to be Trids, proud to be
rough and strong, and proud to not need the guiding hand of Anon, the
Syndicate, or Venus.
Kailynn would be ridiculed for what she
was doing, particularly since she was earning money to break out the most-hated
gang of Trid.
“I ain’t tellin,” she said with a cocky
smile, turning away. She heard Alyssa and the others chuckle behind her.
“That’s our girl.”
Raphael did not feel the same sort of
relief as the others. He saw the brief hesitation that crossed Kailynn’s face.
With her strange behavior the previous four days, he was sure that something
more had happened that she was trying to hide. He wondered if she had gotten
into even more trouble. He understood that Kailynn would do anything to help
Theo. Theo was her only surviving family, but Raphael knew that Theo was far
from the ideal older brother. Raphael did not understand the hold that Theo had
over Kailynn.
He was about to ask Kailynn if she wanted
to check if her brother had gone to her place, which would give him a chance to
talk with her privately, when Viv gasped, pointing.
“There they are!”
Kailynn whirled around to see a group of
men and women jogging toward them, waving.
The others of Kailynn’s gang called to
them, welcoming them and congratulating them on their escape. Kailynn ignored
the others, searching the faces for her older brother. When she finally saw
him, he smiled and walked over to her.
She let him approach but, before she
could help herself, she slapped him across the face.
As soon as he turned back to her,
surprised and confused, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him
tightly.
“I guess I deserve that,” he chuckled.
“You deserve a helluva lot more than
that, you jackass,” Kailynn groaned, breaking the hug. “You cannot keep pulling
stunts like that.”
Theo smiled and ruffled Kailynn’s hair
playfully.
“Are you kidding? Do you know how close
we were?”
“To being
killed
? Yes,” she said sharply. “I’m serious, Theo, lay low. More
than half the gangs around here want you dead and now you’ve drawn the
attention of the Syndicate. You do anything stupid now and they’re going to
label you as a KOS.”
Theo did not seem worried about being
classified as a Kill on Sight target. He just smiled, glancing at the others of
his gang, causing them to smile at what they believed to be Kailynn’s
dramatics.
“Theo!” Kailynn snapped.
“Alright, alright,” Theo chuckled,
hugging his younger sister again. “It’s alright.” He rubbed her shoulder.
“We’re here now. We got out.”
Kailynn was about to snap at Theo and
tell him that the only reason he was able to escape was because of her bribe
money, however, she decided against it. She let her brother hug her and pretend
like she was exaggerating.
She knew that she was not overreacting.
While some of the territory of the Heart
of Trid gang had been taken by other rival gangs, there were still several
small areas that belonged to them. Combined with Kailynn’s territory, they had
a safe place to celebrate the escape from Uren.
Aron, one of the oldest members of the
Heart of Trid gang, did not mind having everyone over at his place, as it was
the most central in the gang’s territory and the largest. The Trids lifted
drinks and ration packs from cafes and bars in the Walking District, smuggling
them back to Aron’s for their celebration. The elation of having booze and
several ration packs raised the already-celebratory mood. They did not care about
preserving the loot. They were too happy to have most of the Heart of Trid gang
free of Uren.
All of them toasted to the safe return of
Theo and the others and the drinking began. Alyssa hooked up a speaker to play
some grainy music from weak signals in the Walking District. Some Trids played
cards and drinking games, feeling safe and secure in the flat.
Kailynn drank and drank but she could not
join in the festivities. No one noticed her distant, sad look as she sat
against the far wall with a drink in hand. Anyone who looked at her figured she
was merely drunk.
When Raphael noticed the look, he crawled
to her, heavily inebriated, and sat next to her.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” she responded.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t look okay.”
“I’m drunk.”
Raphael fell silent. He knew that there
was something bothering Kailynn. He tried to think of something to say that
would get her to tell him what was wrong, but his mind was foggy with liquor.
“Wanna tell me what’s wrong?” he finally
said.
“Nothing’s wrong,” she answered, her eyes
never leaving the floor. She was staring at the dirty concrete, lost in
thoughts she could not follow. She closed her eyes and ran a hand through her
hair, sighing.
“Something is wrong,” Raphael disagreed.
Kailynn was still for several moments
before she let her head fall onto Raphael’s shoulder. Her eyes still closed,
she tried to fight the sudden urge to cry in frustration. She did not know what
she was upset about, but the alcohol made her emotional and upset.
She had to blame the alcohol.
Raphael decided not to think too much
about his next course of action.
He took Kailynn’s chin, tilting her head
up and capturing her lips in a kiss. He felt her smile against his mouth, so he
kissed her again, his lips covering hers in a way that he always enjoyed.
Kailynn had been the one who called off their monogamous relationship, saying
that he could be with other women if he wanted. Raphael never questioned why
she did that, but now that he was kissing her again, he wondered why they were
no longer a couple.
Raphael had been attracted to Kailynn
from the moment he saw her at the Keeper—the Trid orphanage. The orphans stayed
in their groups, never letting in new orphans, which led to four or five
newcomers creating a group of their own. Raphael had been with the Keeper since
he could remember, having been abandoned as a newborn. When Kailynn came
through the door, his eyes were unable to leave her. She was one year younger
than him, and had been dropped off by her fifteen-year-old brother because he
could not feed her. She had cried when he walked away, never turning back to
look at Kailynn, calling over his shoulder that he would be back.
Raphael broke the unspoken rule of the
Keeper and immediately took Kailynn into his group. That group eventually
became the founding members of the Cobalt Jaguars gang.
It was natural that Raphael and Kailynn
would become a couple. They were around each other constantly and there was a
definite spark between them. They got together when Kailynn was sixteen and
were a committed couple for two years before Kailynn said that they did not
need to be monogamous.
And slowly, their intimate relations
stopped.
Occasionally, they would have sex, when
they were lonely, or cold, or just bored and wanting to pass time, but it had
never been with the intent to resume their relationship.
Kissing her then, he wanted her to be
with him once more.
He wanted to hold her every night as she
drifted off to sleep. He wanted to wake up just before her so he could kiss her
awake. The thought of being sappy and romantic did not bother him. She was
worth it.
Kailynn broke the kiss and leaned her
head against his.
“Do you want to leave?”
She nodded.
He stood and offered his hand to her. He
shared a quick glance with a few of the others who saw them move. They waved
and nodded, some winking suggestively as the two left.
Raphael had his arm around Kailynn’s
shoulders as they walked silently back to his flat. He would glance at Kailynn
and smile gently.
She never once looked at him.
Kailynn’s eyes were focused on the
ground, her thoughts elsewhere.
She walked into Raphael’s apartment
without thinking. She heard the door close and she turned to him. He
immediately took her face in his hands, kissing her as he backed her up to the
wall.
For several moments, Kailynn was too
startled to move. She felt Raphael’s lips on hers and they gave her pause. It
was not what she had been expecting.